OVF

The OVF Datasource provides a datasource for reading data from on an Open Virtualization Format ISO transport.

For further information see a full working example in cloud-init’s source code tree in doc/sources/ovf

Configuration

The following configuration can be set for the datasource in system configuration (in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg or /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/).

The settings that may be configured are:

• disable_vmware_customization: disable or enable the vmware customization based on vmware customization files. (default: True)
• allow_raw_data: enable or disable the vmware customization based on raw cloud-init data including metadata and userdata. (default: True)
• vmware_cust_file_max_wait: the maximum amount of clock time in seconds that should be spent waiting for vmware customization files. (default: 15)

On VMware platforms, VMTools use is required for OVF datasource configuration settings as well as vCloud and vSphere admin configuration. User could change the VMTools configuration options with command:

vmware-toolbox-cmd config set <section> <key> <value>

The following VMTools configuration options affect cloud-init’s behavior on a booted VM:

• a: [deploypkg] enable-custom-scripts

  If this option is absent in VMTools configuration, the custom script is disabled by default for security reasons. Some VMware products could change this default behavior (for example: enabled by default) via customization specification settings.

VMWare admin can refer to (https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/blob/main/cloudinit/sources/helpers/vmware/imc/config.py) and set the customization specification settings.

For more information, see [VMware vSphere Product Documentation](https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-9A5093A5-C54F-4502-941B-3F9C0F573A39.html) and specific VMTools parameters consumed.